R1 Update From Harvard Business School

In her latest update to the Harvard Business School MBA admissions blog, Director Dee Leopold explained what happens for Round 1 applicants waiting anxiously for news of their status. To recap, potential candidates can expect to receive either an invitation to interview, placement on the waitlist, or be released.

For those who received an email notification with interview details, congratulations! However, if you were not successful in your R1 application to Harvard, you should know that while the blow certainly stings, it truly is better to know now so that you may refocus your energies on your other target schools and perhaps the next round deadlines.

While placement on the waitlist can be frustrating, or even feel like a disappointment, we think applicants should really pay close attention to how Leopold explains the process, and the odds. The waitlist is where promising candidates end up when there has been an array of outstanding applicants in a particular round, and yes, this is good news, because it means you're still in the running!

At Harvard Business School, placement on the waitlist means the admissions committee wants to re-review your candidacy after they see Round 2 applications. In the best case, you would be invited to interview on the R2 timetable; otherwise, the school will inform you of your release in mid-February.

"We anticipate that approximately 100 Round 1 applicants will be asked to join the waitlist on October 24," Leopold says, later explaining that, "Last year, we interviewed 48 Round 1 candidates who were placed on this early waitlist before interview and admitted 24 of them."

Those odds may be longer than you'd like, but for a top-notch MBA program, many applicants are happy to take their chances.

For more on this topic, read our post from the spring with advice for accepted, waitlisted and denied MBA applicants.

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